Overview
Assembling and maintaining a high-performing leadership team involves more than assessing domain knowledge and functional expertise. While traditional recruitment focuses on these cognitive skill sets, metacognitive structures—decision frameworks comprising heuristics, algorithms, and “best practices”—are equally critical. Despite their importance, these frameworks are seldom emphasized in recruitment, leading to misalignments and dissatisfaction among leaders.
Key Findings
Leaders have considered resigning due to disagreement with the decision-making process.
Industry-specific decision-making p atterns for all major industry sectors
Successful leaders are behaviorally flexible and cognitively adaptable.
Awareness of different decision frameworks within a leadership team can reduce friction and enhance team performance.
Methodology
The study involved 5,009 senior leaders across 75 executive search mandates. A 24-item decision framework instrument was developed through a lexical approach and validated using various analytical techniques, including Rasch scaling and exploratory factor analysis. The instrument focuses on five dimensions: Openness, Social Skills, Conscientiousness, Enthusiasm, and Transparency.
Research Insights
- Metacognitive skills are distinct from cognitive skills and are crucial for rapid and appropriate problem-solving.
- Leaders with strong metacognitive awareness are more likely to recognize and appreciate different decision frameworks within their teams, leading to better decision-making and adaptability.
Instrument Development and Validation
Implications for Leadership Teams
Workflow Changes
We’ve seen significant attrition-driven labor shortages in many pockets of the industry and across roles (e.g., nurses, techs, drivers, executives). Wage laws are making it harder to attract frontline talent who could easily find fulfilling careers elsewhere), and macro challenges make it hard to attract functional executives (e.g., marketing, procurement, finance, HR) who could use their transferrable skills and move to sectors like tech, financial services, energy, and more.
Conclusion
This study highlights the importance of metacognitive structures in leadership success. By developing a 24-item instrument to measure leaders decision frameworks, we provide a tool to improve metacognitive awareness, leading to better recruitment outcomes and more effective leadership teams. Understanding and integrating decision frameworks into the recruitment process can significantly enhance leader satisfaction, retention, and team performance.
